Leading auto engineer Richard Parry-Jones has criticised hydrogen as a fuel for cars, in his latest article for Autocar magazine.
The car industry veteran, who was previously chief technical officer at Ford, weighed up the cases for hydrogen, biofuel and electricity as potential replacements for petrol and diesel in today's Autocar.
Parry-Jones's views on hydrogen, hailed by many as the ultimate long-term automotive fuel because of its tailpipe emissions, are plain.
“A car that emits only water has superficial soundbite appeal," he said. "But hydrogen comes with big associated challenges."
Parry-Jones’s concern over the fuel are specific to its generation, distribution and storage.
“Even when compressed to 700bar it’s 10 times less energy-dense than petrol,” he explained. "And once you’ve compressed it, transported it and stored it at the point of sale, you’ve used 75 per cent of its energy content.”
So what will power the super-low-emission car of the future? Find out in the 22 October issue of Autocar.
